I do have an earlier version, I just did not want to lose the three hours work that I had done on it. However, given that the file is corrupted, it seems to make sense to throw it away and work from the earlier version. Thank you very much for trying to help.

If you want to try Open and Repair, here's how to do it: Display the Open dialog box from within Word, for example by pressing Ctrl+O. Locate the (possibly) damaged file and click it. Click the arrow on the Open button and then choose Open and Repair.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional